The Port Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go has con­firmed that a tem­po­rary car­go ves­sel has been se­cured and is en route to the coun­try to main­tain the in­ter-is­land car­go sea bridge.

The MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny is ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in Trinidad on Jan­u­ary 18, re­plac­ing the MV Cabo Star, whose lease ex­pires on Jan­u­ary 12. The ves­sel has been con­tract­ed for one year, with plans in place to ac­quire a per­ma­nent, cus­tom-built car­go ves­sel there­after.

Chief Sec­re­tary and To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine an­nounced the de­vel­op­ment at a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing in Ma­son Hall on Mon­day night, high­light­ing sev­er­al up­grad­ed fea­tures of the in­com­ing ves­sel.

“The MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny has al­ready de­part­ed Egypt and is on its way to Port-of-Spain. As a fur­ther pre­cau­tion, arrange­ments have al­so been made with the Port Au­thor­i­ty to utilise the T&T Spir­it and Galleons Pas­sage if nec­es­sary,” Au­gus­tine said.

He not­ed that the ves­sel of­fers in­creased car­go ca­pac­i­ty, ex­pand­ed re­frig­er­at­ed stor­age, heav­ier-du­ty load­ing ramps, and im­proved op­er­a­tional re­li­a­bil­i­ty through greater en­gine re­dun­dan­cy. Au­gus­tine al­so out­lined pas­sen­ger up­grades, say­ing the ves­sel will have about 100 cab­ins, im­proved seat­ing and din­ing fa­cil­i­ties, and mod­ern on­board ameni­ties, re­flect­ing feed­back from fer­ry users—par­tic­u­lar­ly To­bag­o­ni­ans.

Au­gus­tine said the ves­sel will play a key role in sup­port­ing To­ba­go’s agri­cul­ture sec­tor and small busi­ness­es by fa­cil­i­tat­ing greater ex­ports to Trinidad.

“This is about giv­ing To­ba­go ac­cess to the tools it needs to dri­ve its econ­o­my. I see beet­roots and oth­er crops com­ing from To­ba­go. I see smoked fish com­ing from To­ba­go. We can pro­duce things and sell to the rest of the world,” he said.

Cur­tis Williams, To­ba­go chair­man of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, wel­comed the an­nounce­ment, say­ing it eased con­cerns about con­ti­nu­ity of ser­vice.

“The news is wel­com­ing. We hope to in­spect the ves­sel in Trinidad and To­ba­go to see how well it is fit­ted for the car­go seabridge,” Williams said.

He cau­tioned, how­ev­er, that the Blue Wave Har­mo­ny re­mains a tem­po­rary so­lu­tion, while ac­knowl­edg­ing that it pro­vides re­as­sur­ance for in­ter-is­land trans­port and moves To­ba­go clos­er to its long-promised cus­tom-built car­go ves­sel.